International Getaway!!!

Hello, friends! 

It's a few weeks late but I wanted to give an update on International Getaway. 

This year's Getaway was the biggest we'd ever had! We had 77 students from over 20 countries attend this year, which was massive! When you include the staff and families, I think we ended up with over 100 folk in attendance. Wow! 

My role was kid duty (as usual). Because of some flooding in our basement earlier in the week, JoJo and I didn't come up until Friday (it started on Thursday) but that didn't stop us from having a good time. The older kids especially enjoyed hanging out with another staff kid who was there. They spent pretty much the whole time on the dock, trying to catch fish, frogs, and collecting shells.

A few highlights: 

- Watching the kids play. As Ezra and Thaliea have gotten older, their sense of independent play has grown. They're also much more responsible than they were a year ago and can fend for themselves a little better. That was great because it gave me more energy to focus on JoJo, who is still growing and needs my help a little more. 

- Fishing. Not only was it fun catching fish (isn't it always?), but it was also fun watching others fish for the first time. For many of the international students, it was there first time with a rod and reel. The look of elation they had when they hooked their first fish was so great! 

- Cultural Showcase. One of the highlights of the weekend is the Cultural Showcase. Students get to show do a performance and it's always a good time. There was dancing. There was singing. There was beat boxing. There was a PowerPoint presentation. The Cultural Showcase had it all! 

- Dari-B. There's an ice cream shop not too far from the camp. We go there every time we're at the camp and it's always excellent. =0). 

- Seeing Megan at work. Megan had been director for the past few years but this year was "just" put on hospitality. Still, it was so great seeing her in her element, whether it be making students feel welcome, having great conversations about Jesus, or just making sure that everyone was well fed. 

I've said before that International Getaway is one of the best things that we do as a Region and this year was more proof of that. Hooray for International Getaway! 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam